


The Year Between

by Stormblessed242



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angry Keith (Voltron), Fiiling in the empty space, M/M, My First AO3 Post, My First Fanfic, broganes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:06:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26697958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormblessed242/pseuds/Stormblessed242
Summary: When Keith finds out the Shiro is dead, he loses control of his emotions, and soon gets expelled from the Garrison. Then he finds these carvings, and suddenly he's waiting for a mysterious arrival....
Relationships: Adam & Keith (Voltron), Adam/Shiro (Voltron), James Griffin & Keith (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	The Year Between

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Fanfic!! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, so let me know what you guys think! I did the best I could with the limited information we got from the show, so let me know if you have any suggestions.

Keith stood on the tarmac, watching the technicians swarm over the rocket. The rocket was huge, standing over ten stories high. It had all the latest upgrades and technology, everything it would need to get to Kerberos. In about two hours, it would take off on the longest journey any Garrison explorer had been on before. 

Off to his left, Keith could see Commander Holt and his family talking and taking photos. A half smile formed on his face as he realized that he was unintentionally photobombing.

Shiro had gotten Keith special clearance to watch the launch in person, instead of back at the Academy on the television. Keith had received quite a number of jealous looks from the other cadets as he had walked out of the dorm on his way here.

A hand gripped Keith's shoulder, and he turned to see Shiro smiling down at him. 

"Hey man." Keith said. He craned his head to look behind Shiro. "Where's Adam?"

Shiro smiled sadly. "We had a bit of a... disagreement. He's not watching the launch." He was silent for a moment, then straightened and pointed up towards the cockpit of the rocket. 

"In just a little while, I'll be piloting that beast."

"I wish I was going." Keith sighed. 

Shiro smiled. "I know, but you still got a few years of training left. But after that, who knows where you'll go? Maybe you'll be the pilot who heads the next trip past Kerberos."

Keith smiled at that thought. That would be cool. But still..

They stood in silence for a minute, neither of them wanting to be the first to say goodbye. Finally Shiro took a deep breath and said "Keith, I... I'm really proud of you. You've come a long way during your time here. Just... don't do anything dumb while I'm gone, okay?" 

Keith gave a small smile. "Right back at you." 

"I'll be back before you know it." Shiro continued. "Then we can take the speeders out for a ride, and maybe you'll finally beat me." 

They laughed, but a thought struck Keith and he stopped, looking at Shiro anxiously. 

"But, it'll be a year, and by then, you might... you know. Your sickness might have gotten worse.

Shiro nodded solemnly. "I know. But I have to do this. One last record for me to break." 

Keith felt his eyes stinging a bit, but he did his best to hide it. "Just... be careful, okay?"

"I will." Shiro responded. "Goodbye, Keith."

"See you soon, Shiro. Good luck." 

Shiro gave him one last smile, then turned and headed towards a nearby building. Keith watched him for a moment, then turned and headed towards the observatory room.

....... 

Five months later, Keith sat in the dorm common room, staring at his data pad. He was scrolling through the public reports on the Kerberos mission. But there was no report for this week. The last one was dated as seven days ago.

 _That's weird,_ he thought. He went back to the last report and glanced through it quickly, looking for anything he might have missed. The three-man team had been approaching Kerberos, and were about to land, according to the last report.

But that had been a week ago.

Someone suddenly turned up the volume on the television. Keith glanced up, seeing the news reporter announcing a news flash. The word "Kerberos" caught his eye, and he sat up straight, listening hard. The screen showed footage from the launch five months ago.

"The Galaxy Garrison mission to the distant moon of Kerberos is missing, and all crew members are believed to be dead."

There were a few exclamations of surprise from the others in the room, but Keith sat in shocked silence.

The reporter continued.

"The Galaxy Garrison has said the crash was presumably caused by pilot error. It is indeed a sad day for a humanity. "

 _Pilot error?_ Keith thought incredulously. This is Shiro they're talking about. He's the best pilot in the Garrison. Then the real truth hit him. The ship had crashed. The crew was dead. Shiro was gone. Keith would never see him again. Keith felt frozen in disbelief 

James Griffin stood up and turned towards Keith, a smug smile on his face.

"Well, Keith." He said." There's no way you'll be able to stay in the Academy now that Shiro's not here to protect you." 

Keith felt his face flush, and he stood, ready to show James what he thought of that comment, but almost as soon as it came, the anger faded. He was in too much shock to really feel anything at the moment. So instead he just said, "You don't know what you're talking about, James." Then he turned and left the room.

When he arrived in his dorm room, no one was there, luckily. Keith paced for a few minutes, feelings churning inside of him. He went over the news report in his head, trying to glean as much as he could from it.

_"Believed to be dead?" They don't know? If something was wrong during landing, they would've contacted the Garrison. And what had that been about pilot error? Maybe... maybe his disease got worse. Maybe his muscles seized up, and... General Sanda was right. Shiro should never have gone to Kerberos._

A wave of anger boiled up inside him, and he grabbed his pillow, then flung it across the room, smacking it into the door. It hit with a satisfying thunk, but Keith's anger didn't abate. 

He grabbed his jacket and headed towards where his speeder was parked.

A few minutes later he was flying along the desert sands, his jacket flapping in the wind. He tried to focus on his driving, but a side effect of being so practiced at it was that it didn't take much brain power, and his thoughts kept turning back to Shiro. Keith still couldn't believe he was gone. His mind still refused to accept that fact.

He took a curve at such a high speed that he nearly flipped the speeder, and he snapped his attention back to the increasingly difficult terrain. But the anger still boiled inside of him, though he was not really sure who, or what, he was angry at. 

He jumped a small chasm, landing in a long niche in the side of one of the large sandstone masses. He sped up further, seeing the cliff edge ahead. He'd only been able to successfully jump it and land safely once. Maybe he could do it this time. Shiro's words echoed in his head.

It's all about timing. Pull up too soon, and you won't have the momentum needed to create lift. Too soon, and there won't be enough momentum to avoid the crash.

Keith leaned low over the handlebars, readying himself for the drop off the cliff. Almost before he expected it, he was suddenly weightless, and the ground was rushing up to meet him. He cut the engines, just leaving the stabilizers on. He waited, watching the ground, his hair flying up in the air.

_Too soon, too soon.....wait.... almost.... now? No... uh oh._

He had waited too long. He fired the engines on full power, but it wasn't enough to stop the front of the speeder from crashing into the ground. Keith was flung from the seat, crashing to the ground ten feet away. He slid to a stop, groaning. He waited a moment, expecting to hear Shiro's speeder pull up beside him, Shiro laughing but giving encouragement. Then reality returned with a stab of pain. Keith would never hear Shiro's voice again.

That anger boiled up inside him again, and he angrily pushed himself up and stalked over to check the speeder. One of the engines was smoking, and it was listing in the sand. He'd have to walk back to the Academy. 

All that anger in him finally snapped, and he yelled, kicking out a spray of sand in front of him. 

"Why?" He screamed to the wind. "What did I do to deserve this?" His voice broke, and a tear ran down his cheek. "Why... why would you leave me too?" 

Of course, there was no response. 

"I can't do this without you, Shiro! How can I do this without you?" 

The last part was said in a quiet whisper, as he sank to his knees in the sand.

It took him the better part of two hours to get back to the barracks. It was dark, and if Iverson caught him out so late after curfew, he'd be running weekend drills for months. Luckily, the night patrol was on the other side of the building, so Keith was able to sneak in unnoticed. He quietly slid open the door to his dorm, and lay down on his bed. His roommates were all asleep, Jackson snoring softly. Keith didn't even bother getting undressed, he just lay there, but it was a long time before he fell asleep.

When he woke there were a few blissful moments of unawareness, but then reality came crashing in. How could he have forgotten? Shiro was dead. A wave of guilt for forgetting washed over him, and a cold weight settled in his stomach. 

He stood up, realizing that all the others in his dorm were still asleep. He didn't bother digging out a new uniform from his dresser, just walked to the mess hall in his rumpled jacket and shirt. 

He was almost to the mess hall when Iverson stepped out in front of him. 

"Cadet!" He barked. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Keith rolled his eyes. "What do I have to say about what?" 

Iverson's one eye managed to get bigger in outrage. "Watch your tone, cadet. You didn't get to your dorm until twenty-three hundred hours last night. That's two hours after curfew. And you’re not in uniform. You should get detention at least for this."

"So?" 

Keith shouldn't be talking like that. Iverson would definitely give him some sort of punishment now. But Keith couldn't stop himself. All his anger and frustration was slowly boiling over again. 

Iverson glared at him. "Make sure it doesn't happen again."

"It. Won't." Keith said through gritted teeth. He stalked around Iverson, silently fuming. He felt Iverson's eye on him all the way down the hall.

When Keith got to the simulator room for the first drill set of the day, he stalked to his customary cockpit in the back. Today’s drillmaster was Janet Killen, who was about the meanest sergeant in the whole Garrison.

 _This should be fun,_ he thought sardonically. 

Killen said his name for roll call, Keith just raised his hand silently. Mrs. Killen glared at him, but marked his name on her chart. 

Keith folded his arms and sat back, feeling exasperated. He saw James Griffin sniggering at him, then turning and whispering to the girl next to him. There would be trouble soon. And this time he didn't have Shiro to bail him out. 

Right. Shiro. 

"Mr. Kogane?"

Mrs. Killen’s sharp voice cut through his thoughts. He sighed. "Yes?"

Her pinched face became even more sour. 

"I asked you a question, but apparently you're too busy daydreaming to participate in this class."

Snickers from all around the classroom. Mrs. Killen ignored them, instead focusing all her sourness at Keith alone. 

"You'll never pass if you're fantasizing at every possible moment."

That was unfair. It had been months since Keith had not been paying attention in class. He'd been trying hard for Shiro, and had forced himself to be attentive. He made an effort to push down the frustration rising inside him, but it didn't work. 

"In that case, I have a question for you." He snapped. "Yesterday we all received the news that the three of the best members of the Galaxy Garrison, one of which was the best pilot here, are all dead. Do you really expect us to just move on like nothing happened? Or are you all so heartless that you just don't care?"

He knew it was a mistake as soon as he finished talking, but it was too late now. Killen looked like she was about to explode with anger, and she pulled herself up to her full height, her bony hand clenching her pen tightly. 

"I think that you need some time to clear that hot head of yours. Go stand in the hallway until I call you back in." 

Keith stood and stalked out of the room, feeling James's sadistic look on his back. 

The rest of the day was a disaster. Keith snapped at almost every teacher, and was so sullen at lunch that everyone expressly avoided his table. During flight class in the simulator, his reaction times were off, and he threw off the rest of the flight. When Iverson called him out on it, Keith simply stood up and walked out of the room. Later when he was trying to do some homework in the common room, he saw James Griffin prancing around proclaiming about how good he was, and eagerly reenacting Keith's mistakes in the simulator. When he spotted Keith in the corner, he approached Keith and leaned onto the table. 

"Hey, Mullet, guess what Iverson said after you stormed out of class today?"

Keith tried to ignore him, knowing that he was just trying to provoke a reaction. 

A smug smile spread across Griffin's face. 

"He said that you were an 'disrespectful brat,' and that Shiro made a mistake in bringing you here."

 _That's it._

Keith could take this kid's criticism of him, but now he was going too far. He clenched his fist and stood up, ready to swing. Lance stepped back, crouching, ready for a fight. At that moment one of the officers walked into the room, and stopped, noticing the tension in the air. His eyes quickly found Keith and his adversary, and he strolled over casually. 

"Is there trouble here, Cadets Griffin and Kogane?" 

Keith looked at Griffin, daring him to say something. He just dropped his eyes, and stepped back.

"No, sir."

The teacher eyed him. "Good." He turned and headed back towards another table nearby. 

Keith snapped up his books, and, with one final glare at Griffin, stomped out the door. He headed straight towards where Shiro's speeder was stored, and sat there, arms crossed. 

It was a long time before he cooled down. 

The next few days were a haze of stewing in hallways, arguments, detention, and silent moments of grief.

There was an official memorial for Shiro, Commander Holt, and Matt Holt, but Keith didn't go. It hurt too much. 

Everything came to a head when James Griffin swaggered up to Keith while he was working on Shiro's speeder. He still hadn't retrieved his own, and it was probably buried in sand by now. 

"Hey, Kogane. " Griffin said, leaning on the wing of the speeder. "Iverson sent me to tell you that you're being sent to detention again."

"For what?" Keith snapped, not looking up. 

Griffin shrugged. "I don't know. He just said that you needed to get your attitude in order, or you'd be expelled."

An evil grin spread across Griffins face. "I agree with him."

Keith snapped his head up, fist clenching. "I didn't ask."

"Careful." Griffin taunted. "Shiro's not here to save your sorry skin."

Keith inhaled sharply. That was it. Next he knew he had Griffin pinned against the speeder, and was punching him savagely. 

Griffin finally managed to block, and pushed Keith off him. They stood there a moment, eyes locked, breathing heavily. 

"Come on, Griffin." Keith said, "Let's see if you can live up to your big mouth."

With a yell Griffin launched himself at Keith, and they both fell to the floor, grappling at anything they could reach. 

They were interrupted by Iverson yelling over the intercom. 

"Griffin! Kogane! Report to my office at once!"

Gasping, Keith and Griffin broke apart, glaring at each other. 

"This isn't over." Keith hissed, then turned and marched towards Iverson's office. 

"You're expelled."

"What?"

Iverson glared at him. "I don't like to repeat myself. Your discipline issues are evident, so we have decided that you will no longer be welcome here."

Keith stood there, shocked. Iverson sat at his desk in front of him, his single eye challenging Keith to argue. 

"Are you expelling Griffin?" Keith asked incredulously. 

Iverson shook his head. 

"Why not? He taunted me. I didn't start the argument."

"He's not the one who snaps at everyone and disobeys orders."

Keith blinked. Iverson was right, he realized. He had been decidedly... irritable. 

He almost smiled, but caught himself. 

"Yes sir." He said meekly instead. 

Iverson eyed him. 

"You will not be allowed back on Garrison grounds after twenty-hundred hours tonight. So I suggest you get packing."

Keith walked towards where Shiro's speeder was parked, his bag slung over his shoulder. He no longer had his uniform on, Iverson had taken that along with his pilot’s pin. 

As he walked through the door, he saw Adam standing by the speeder, one hand on the wing. 

"Adam?" Keith said, surprised. He'd barely seen Adam since the Shiro had been pronounced dead. 

Adam turned. "Hey Keith."

"What are you doing here?" Keith asked, slinging his bag down onto the floor. 

Adam took a deep breath. "I should've come and talked to you sooner. I would've, but it just hurt too much."

Keith nodded in understanding. He didn't say anything, just let Adam get out what he needed to.

"I know you lost just as much as I did when Takashi died. And I should've been there for you, like he would have been."

Keith shook his head. "We should've been there for each other."

"Maybe." Adam conceded. "But I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I Tried to stop them from expelling you, but i don't have the same pull Takashi did."

"It's alright." Keith said. "This place wasn't for me anyway. Everyone knows I was only here because of Shiro."

"That's not true." Adam insisted. "You are one of the best pilots here."

Keith smiled. It felt good. "Remember the time that I challenged Shiro to a fighter jet race, and he asked you to referee?"

Adam laughed. "I remember that. You lost if memory serves."

Keith shrugged. "It was close."

"Iverson wasn't happy."

"No he wasn't. But Shiro insisted that it was a training exercise, and that it wasn't my fault we had borrowed two jets without permission."

Adam smiled. "He was good at getting you out of trouble."

"He had a lot of practice."

"True."

They were quiet for a moment, each lost in memory. 

"So where are you going to go now?" Adam finally said. 

"I guess to my dad's house out in the plains. It'll need some fixing up, but I can do that."

"You sure you'll be ok?" Adam asked. 

"I'll be fine." Keith assured him. "Don't worry."

He grabbed his bag and climbed up onto the speeder. He pressed the ignition, and the familiar thrumming started underneath him. 

He turned back to Adam. "Feel free to come visit, if you want." he said awkwardly. 

Adam smiled again. "I will."

"And Adam?"

"Yeah?"

Keith looked him in the eye. "I'm sorry."

Adam nodded solemnly, understanding. "I'm sorry too. Don't lose yourself out there, ok?"

Keith smiled, then gunned the engines and headed towards the ramshackle old farm. 

Adam stared after him for a little while, then finally turned and walked back towards the barracks, head bowed.

Keith slowed the speeder as he saw the farm. It was definitely in need of work. Two of the windows on the house were broken, and part of the barn was caved in. Not that Keith planned to keep any animals. 

He parked the speeder, then took an old key out of his pocket. He'd had it ever since his dad had died, but had never used it. 

The lock was a bit rusted, but he was able to get it open. 

He opened the door, and stepped into a memory. 

He could almost see his dad, hammer in hand, working on a loose panel on the wall. His vest was damp with sweat, and his hair was messy, but he was stilling nodding along energetically to some music playing on the radio. 

With a mental shake, Keith put his bag down on the dusty table, then headed towards the kitchen, inspecting the damage. The water didn't work, but there was electricity, so that was something. 

Keith got to work. Two days later, he had fully restocked the fridge after a trip to the nearest town, and had cleaned up all the dust. There was still no running water, and he hadn't been able to find the problem, but for now there was an old well that still had water in it. 

He figured that he'd have to get a job eventually, but for now what remained of the money that his dad had left him would hold him over. 

Weeks passed. The farm slowly became inhabitable again, and Keith had finally fetched the remains of his speeder from the base of the cliff. It was now sitting in the usable part of the barn, waiting to be fixed up.

He'd finally found the source of the lack of running water. A pipe had burst, buried underneath the house, and after a day of digging, he'd been able to replace it. Now he could actually take a shower, instead of using a bucket from the well, like some sort of old-fashioned farmer from the 1800s. 

He had also found work in a mechanic shop in town, and he went there twice a week. 

But even with all that to keep him busy, not a day went by that he didn't think of Shiro. Keith still expected to hear his voice as he fixed his speeder, encouraging and giving advice.

But except for the occasional rain, the farm was silent. 

So Keith went about all his duties, but it was lonely out there, even with the rare visit from Adam.

When his speeder was finally fixed, he decided to give himself a day off. He locked up the farm up tight, then took his speeder and his jacket and went for a ride across the desert sands. 

It was wonderful to feel the dry wind in his hair again, but his heart was heavy. He and Shiro had flown over many of these dunes, and he could see the cliff where he had crashed his speeder two months before. Since that day, Keith had not attempted the cliff jump again. If he couldn't do it, and Shiro wasn't there to help him, what was the point? 

To Keith, it felt like a part of him had died along with his surrogate brother, and he wasn't going to get it back.

As he flew, he noticed an odd rock formation ahead. He had never seen it before, and he could see the entrance of a deep cave in the side. He steered towards it, and in a few minutes, was walking into the cave. 

It wasn't very dark, so Keith was able to go quite deep into the cave. It was dry and sandy, and the air was stuffy. 

Something caught his eye. It was an old carving on the wall. It took him a minute, but he could make out the shape of a... lion? 

It wasn't like any lion Keith had ever seen. It almost looked like a machine, with sharp edges and rounded joints. It looked like it was roaring, jaws wide, head thrust forward. 

Keith stood there a moment, suddenly noticing other carvings along the walls. They seemed to grow out of the walls, appearing where Keith hadn't seen anything before. Most of them were of the same lion, but a few were different. They depicted strange circular patterns, and some looked vaguely like people.

Keith walked deeper into the cave, looking at all the carvings. 

"What is this?" He wondered out loud.

One carving in particular caught his eye. It looked like a giant robot, and in was... made out of the lions? 

Keith's communicator beeped the time, and he realized that it was getting late. If he didn't hurry, he wouldn't get back before dark.

With one last look at the robot carving, he turned and headed back towards the entrance. 

Over the next few months, whenever he had the chance, Keith went back to the cave. He took pictures of the carvings, and searched online for any reference of similar ones. There was nothing. No robotic lions, no giant mechs. 

Soon he had covered an entire corkboard with pictures and notes. Keith was surprised at himself. He'd never been one to take on research projects like this, and the mandatory ones at the Academy had been done with great reluctance. But something, some... energy surrounding these carvings drew his attention, and they were never far from his thoughts.

Some of them in particular were especially interesting. One depicted a large shape, which Keith assumed was a ship, firing shots at a smaller ship that was heading towards a planet. When Keith studied the planet carving more closely, he realized that it looked like Earth. 

Another showed the same small ship, but now in a wreck on the surface of the planet. The sky above was dark, with the moon and stars faintly engraved in the stone. Other shapes resembling tents and people surrounded the crash, but the most interesting thing was that on the tents, the Galaxy Garrison insignia showed. 

Keith didn't remember any history lessons that talked about a crash like that, and the Garrison didn't have any ships shaped like the one in the carving. So what was this cave drawing talking about?

It took Keith a long time to figure it out, but the thought finally occurred to him that the carvings might be depicting something in the future. 

Well, that started a whole new problem. How could've whoever made these carvings have known what would've happened in the future?

Unfortunately, right after Keith had that realization, a huge storm blew through the area, and it was a long time before he was able to return to the cave.

But when he did, he started noticing more details about the prophetic carving. The stars behind the crash site were exactly plotted to match the real constellations on Earth. Upon closer inspection, they matched the eastern night sky of where Keith lived, and lined up to an exact date.

That date wouldn't come for five more months and he could derive no more clues from the other carvings, so all that was left to do was wait.

For the next five months, Keith settled into a routine. Every other day, he took his speeder into town to work at the mechanic shop. On his off days, he either went on long treks through the desert, or kept his piloting skills sharp with a basic VR training program. 

All was normal. Well, as normal as it could be for a seventeen-year-old orphan who lived alone in the desert. 

But as the date on the carvings approached, Keith found himself staring off into space more and more, wondering what this "arrival" meant. The ships depicted were not like any Garrison or earth ships Keith had ever seen, and he had never heard of a crash like this at the Garrison. 

Finally, on the long-expected night, Keith sat outside the farmhouse, watching the sky. His speeder was nearby, fully gassed and ready to go. Keith had packed everything he could possibly need, including some minor explosives he had swiped off a construction team, a mask to cover his face, and his knife. 

A sudden streak of light flashed across the sky, like a comet. Keith stood, watching as it arced downward, then there was a small explosion as it collided with the ground. A few minutes later, sirens started blaring from the distant Garrison base. Soon he could see the headlights of a convoy of Garrison vehicles hurrying towards the source of the explosion.

Keith jogged to his speeder and followed them.

When he got to the crash site, he parked his speeder behind an outcropping, he sneaked up to the edge to look at the encampment. Garrison tents were set up all around the smoking remains of some kind of ship. There were a few people in hazard suits around it, and they seemed to be lifting someone out of the wreck. They carried the limp figure to a tent with the medical cross on the side, and disappeared inside. 

Is that the person who's "arriving?" Keith wondered. _I need to get to them._

But how to do it? There were dozens of soldiers and technicians around, and they were all on high alert. There was no way Keith could just sneak in, and he was sure Iverson would blow his top if he saw Keith here. 

Keith walked back to his speeder, and stood there, contemplating. 

Then his eyes went to the small bag of explosives. A small smile came to his face as a plan started to form in his mind. 

He hopped back on the speeder, and went to the other side of the camp, giving it a wide berth so he wouldn't be seen. He set the explosives in a line about a quarter mile from where the trucks were parked, then primed them. They were on an automatic timer, so Keith sped back as quick as he could.

A series of loud explosions followed, and in the resulting confusion below, Keith rushed into the camp after landing his speeder. Dodging technicians and other officers, he ducked into the tent. 

Luckily, there was no one immediately inside, and he was able to progress further, until he came to a set of closed doors. He could hear people moving around inside, talking quietly. He didn't want to hurt them, but there was no way they would let him just walk out with whoever had just crashed the ship. 

He readied himself, the opened the door. 

In the split second allowed him, Keith took in the room. Computers and equipment lined the walls, and three technicians stood near a table in the center, upon which a limp figure was strapped. The technicians turned to look at him, faces hidden in hazmat suits. 

"Hey!" One said in surprise, and they rushed towards him. Keith braced himself, fists clenched, and when the first one was in range, hit him hard enough to propel him a few feet backwards. The second soon followed. The third was somewhat more proficient, and he and Keith exchanged a few blows before Keith was able to take him down. The technician was propelled backwards, hitting the foot of the table, then finally crumpling to the floor. Breathing hard, Keith ran over to the table, and looked at the unconscious figure before him. Keith pulled his mask down, then gently turned the face towards him.

Shock coursed through his body, and Keith gasped, unable to believe it. 

"Shiro?"


End file.
